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United Kingdom, Germany, United States · 2002
Rated PG-13 · 1h 52m
Director Gurinder Chadha
Starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
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18-year-old Jess Bharma secretly joins a semi-pro soccer team in England, against her strict parent's wishes. She attempts to balance her family's traditional values with her life on the pitch, as her parents' suspicion mounts and she develops romantic feelings for her coach.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Just a few years ago, the generally felt aspiration of ethnic groups was to blend in with the majority culture. Today it's to flourish in modern society while actively remembering old-country values...Bend It Like Beckham could cement the trend.
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
Director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha continues in the vein of her previous movies, "What's Cooking?" and "Bhaji on the Beach," exploring with humor and compassion how cultures adapt in foreign climes.
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
I'm still smiling as I recall Jess, the soccer star-to-be, standing behind her straitlaced mother in the kitchen and casually bouncing a head of lettuce on her knee.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Energetic, eager-to-please culture-clash comedy.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Lightweight, thoroughly charming fluff.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
There's nothing terribly bad about Bend It Like Beckham -- in fact it's a fine Friday-night-out film -- it's just that it strikes me as being an awful little piffle cloaked in the garb of something so much more.
Much of the value -- entertainment and otherwise -- of seeing a culture-specific movie is to connect with a larger world than your everyday life offers.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The most exhilarating movie so far this year. It's made up of many familiar elements -- think ''Monsoon Wedding'' meets ''My Beautiful Laundrette'' meets ''Personal Best'' -- yet before long, you catch on to how buoyant and funny and original it is.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak
Terrifically fun entertainment; wonderfully shot and acted, instilled with spirit and life and able to woo us with its exhuberant freshness.
Bend It Like Beckham is supposedly a movie about youth; its biggest shortcoming is that it rarely feels young.
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Definitely a classic film for soccer lovers. The film is really well-acted, and the believable chemistry between Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley make this film really enjoyable. The film has an energetic and witty script, I'd recommend checking it out.